New-look Fitchburg ready for football season

Fitchburg running back Alex Marrero tries to break free from Leominster's Keith Jackson during last year's Thanksgiving Day rivalry game at Crocker Field in Fitchburg. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / ASHLEY GREEN

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FITCHBURG -- The Fitchburg High football program isn't afraid of change.

Under head coach Dan Walker's watch, the Red Raiders have switched from the spread to the I-formation offense.

There's another offensive change in 2016.

Gone are the days of playing smash-mouth, run-it-down-your-throat, I-formation football.

Instead, the Red Raiders have dipped into the college ranks for a new and tough-to-defend offensive strategy that they hope leads to improving on a 2-9 season from a year ago.

Fitchburg will now be running the rare Flexbone offense, made famous by Navy.

"It's no surprise, people know we're doing it," Fitchburg coach Dan Walker said. "We thought, as a program, that we needed a change. For the last four or five years we've had a lot of big linemen, and we have a lot of stockier, more compact kids, athletic kids now. We have a bunch of skill kids on the field and we have the quarterback for it. It's something we talked about for a while.

"It's been fun. We studied up on it."

Fitchburg's big learning lesson came on Easter weekend when members of the Fitchburg coaching staff went to Navy to dip into the playbook, study film and talk to Navy's coaching staff about the finer points of the offense.

They left with a firm understanding of how this offense works and how it can suit the Red Raiders' strengths of having so many talented skill-position players on the field.

"We think this offense fits us well," Walker said.

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"There's definitely going to be some growing pains, but I think if we can come out and execute, then we'll be tough to stop. It's going to be tough to prepare for it in one week."

Walker says the Flexbone offense is built on "teamwork, discipline and everyone working together."

If executed properly, this tough-to-stop offense can move the chains, put points on the board and frustrate opposing defenses.

"Navy is out-manned against most everybody they play, but they get it done and run for yards," Walker said. "If Navy and Army and those schools can get up and run the ball on Notre Dame, then you know how hard it is to defend when you execute it."

The Red Raiders certainly have the athleticism to make the change and get their most dynamic threats on the field at once.

Sophomore Andrew Brooks will direct the offense as the quarterback. Former tailback Alex Marrero -- a junior -- is now the fullback.

Other key wingback players with plenty of speed and elusiveness are Isaul Figueroa, Antonio Ware, Mike Nowd and Angel Santiago.

"Marrero, to me, is the key to the whole thing," Walker said. "Him buying into doing this after being the tailback for two years and converting to fullback, that's going to open everything up for everyone else.

"Our skill guys on the perimeter have been making a lot of plays. Last year people stopped Alex and we struggled. We have a quarterback who can throw and run the ball, we have Alex up the middle and we have a lot of speed on the outside. It's going to come down to execution and staying healthy."

CJ Byars, Devin DeLeon, Angel Crespo and John Murphy will be wide receivers.

"We feel like, one-on-one, with our guys in space, they are going to make plays," Walker said. "We want to get our athletes in space with a chance to make a play."

Fitchburg's offensive line is led by right tackle Austin Chandler.

Fitchburg, which returns 16 or 17 starters, according to Walker, runs an aggressive 4-3 base defense. The guys up front are the key.

"We're much more athletic on the perimeter," Walker said. "I think we have good speed. Pass coverage has been pretty solid, but it's going to come down to stopping the run. We have to stop the run and play tough up front. Our linebackers have to get downhill. We play Brockton in Week 1 and Wachusett in Week 2, so we have to stop the run. If we do, we'll have a chance to get some wins."

Middle linebacker Chandler, Byars at outside linebacker, Marrero at corner and Figueroa at safety are also top players on defense.

Only two years ago, the Red Raiders won the Central Mass. Division 2 championship. They want the program to return to those winning ways again.

"This year is a big year for us, bouncing back from last year," Walker said. "We're still a fairly young team, but we have to establish the winning again. Every year we want to win, there's no question about this. Last year was a difficult year because we were very young and we had some key injuries that really hurt as we got going. This is definitely a key year for us to propel forward and get on the winning track because we do have a lot of younger kids coming up.

"To me, it's very important to establish a winning culture. I think the whole school is really pushing to try to do it in athletics."

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